Exclusive: Chelsea lead Barcelona in race for €60m transfer as talks continue, while Blues duo could leave

Chelsea are continuing talks with Palmeiras over the potential €60million transfer of highly-rated Brazilian wonderkid Estevao Willian, CaughtOffside understands.

Regarded as one of the biggest prospects in Brazil, Estevao is also on the radar of Barcelona, but sources with a close understanding of the current situation have informed CaughtOffside that Chelsea are leading the race for his signature.

As of now, the Blues are the club understood to have taken the most concrete steps over signing Estevao, with negotiations ongoing over the structure of payment terms to Palmeiras, with his €60m release clause being used as a baseline for negotiations. This is perhaps unsurprisingly looking too expensive for Barcelona, who have well noted Financial Fair Play concerns at the moment.

Chelsea have tended to prioritise the recruitment of young players like this under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, so this looks like another promising move if they manage to pull it off, with Mauricio Pochettino finally starting to get the best out of this talented and youthful squad at Stamford Bridge.

We are also likely to see outgoings this January, however, with Armando Broja possibly set to leave in the next few days, CaughtOffside understands.

Although Broja’s price is only around €27m – lower than the £35m that other sources have claimed – it still seems this is proving too expensive for a number of clubs, though some interest from both West Ham and Inter Milan remains.

Trevoh Chalobah’s future has still not been decided, but it now seems increasingly likely that his recover from a recent injury could mean an exit from Chelsea is delayed until the summer. Fulham, West Ham and Crystal Palace are monitoring Chalobah, but as things stand it seems most of the interest is in a loan, while Chelsea would prefer a permanent sale.